Wednesday, September 19, 2012

NWG - Game 3

After a surprisingly short night, I was easily up bright and early for a
shower, breakfast, and round 4. As I stated in the last report I was
set to face Jan Karnowski and his Ork horde. Jan has being having
success with this army even going way back into 5th edition, and I knew
this one would be tough. I did have a lot of templates and blasts
however, so I thought I might be able to get a handle on it, then I saw
the table I was playing on. Below is a picture someone took during round
5. The table in the foreground, with the Nids and Wolves playing on it,
is my round 4 table. As you can see, there's a massive piece of terrain
pretty much disecting the board, and it just happens to block LOS
of just about everything. In other words, those Orks would be
unmolested until they were in my face pretty much. Funnily enough,
that's me behind the guy on the right in the picture, playing on the
table next to it.

Below is also a rough look at Jan's list.

WarbossMega Armour, Cybork Body, Power Claw

Big MekKustom Force Field

15x Lootas
10x Lootas
9x Lootas

30x Slugga BoyzNob with Power Claw and Bosspole

30x Slugga BoyzNob with Power Claw and Bosspole

30x Shoota Boyz3x Rokkit Launchas, Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole

30x Shoota Boyz3x Rokkit Launchas, Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole

30x Shoota Boyz3x Rokkit Launchas, Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole

10x GrotsRuntherder with Bosspole

No subtly, just Orks, lots and lots of Orks. For this game we were
playing the Sieze Ground scenario once again with a Spearhead
deployment. I got a lucky start being able to deploy and go first,
giving me a chance to get the quarter with most of the objectives,
allowing me to play a holding game if at all possible. I got the Master
of Ruins trait though, while Jan got the extra Run dice within 12" of
his Warboss. Coteaz rolled up Prescience and Misfortune for this game. I
deployed spread out to try and sweep the objectives quick so I could
then brace for impact; only the Ravens were in reserve. The Orks horded
around their objectives mostly, with the Lootas going as far North East
as they could to get LOS; the Grots stayed in reserve. We both got Attrition as our secondary BTW, and Draigo made Dreadknight 1 scoring with Grand Strategy.

Turn 1

I began as planned, sweeping out to capture objectives. As the huge
ruin in the middle was all one big objective it was very important to
get into it first. Pretty much everything ran as there was no shooting
to be had and it was over to the Orks.

The Orks all surged forward as was to be expected. They ran, most
of them benefitting from the Warlord Trait, while the 15 and 10 man
Loota squads combined to wipe out a combat squad.

Turn 2

Coteaz put up Prescience just incase as one Raven came in, gunning
for the Lootas. The Rhino in the East moved back, as its cargo were now
dead. Coteaz got his squad into the ruins proper and shot 4 Orks dead.
The Dreadknight up North fried 9 Lootas, 7 from the 10 man squad and 2
from the 15, with the rest of the 10 man fleeing the board. The Raven
fired all it could at the 15 man squad, and despite doing 8 wounds, they
passed 5 cover saves, meaning they stayed Fearless.

The Grots entered the fray in the North East corner, as all the
Boyz geared up to charge. Jan enthusiastically called the Waaaggh! and
the Boyz began to move. Both Loota Sqauds combined to blow up the Raven,
the debree falling into the Mob, but killing none as they passed their
cover saves. Other shooting did nothing and then charges were declared.
The shortest charge to be made was 8", but all 5 units made it thanks to
Waaaggh! re-rolls; both Slugga units hit Draigo, while the Shootas hit
Coteaz with 2 units while the last hit a Rhino.

Combat was bloody, with masses of Orks and a unit of Strikes being killed, while Coteaz and Draigo both took 2 wounds each.

Just to note, at this point I was up 7-2 on primary.

Turn 3

As a display of the dire situation Coteaz as blindly casting his
powers in hopes that he would Perils and die so that the Dreadknight
could flame the tightly bunched up Orks. The other Raven came on and
landed in mid-field. The Rhino turned back to try and stop the Grots.
Both Dreadknights prepared to assault, the scoring one taking an
objective as he went. The Storm Raven opened up on the Lootas again,
using the Machine Spirit to send a missile at the Grots. 3 Grots died
but passed their save, and yet again the Lootas made loads of cover
saves and only one died.

Both Dreadknight charged in. Dreadknight 1 killed 6 Orks, but with 4
Power Claws in range to attack this turn, Draigo and the Paladins were
wiped out. The other Dreadknight pulled off a similar feat, killing 5
including a Nob, but Coteaz died unsurpringly.

The unit that had just killed Coteaz moved to try and counter
charge the Dreadknight, while the rest moved for objectives. The Lootas
took out the second Raven, while in combat Dreadknight 1 was taken down.
Dreadknight 2 killed 4 more Orks, but took 3 wounds.

Turn 4

At this point I knew I was probably going to lose, as the mass of
bodies overran my army pretty quick. I tried to stay back and shoot with
my Strikes but couldn't do anything else. The Rhino tank-shocked the
Grots, but they passed their check again. The Dreadknight finally
brought one of the squads below Mob rule size, however he was killed
before it could matter.

The Ork turn was simple; move onto objectives and shoot. And with that my army was wiped.

Conclusions

It was partly a forseen conclusion based on the table, but some
clever play could have seen me through had I thought of it at the right
moment. In hindsight, I should have ran at the building, and just lined
up at full 2" spacing all around the otuside of the walls, so he would
have no way to move through it and would instead have to go around where
Dreadkngiht would waiting with Heavy Incinerators. Unfortunately I
don't tend to think of such unorthodox play in-game, but it will
certainly be on my mind in the future.

The table aside, good cover saves by the Orks and sheer numbers won
the day, however, the game looked fantastic with the small Grey Knight
force fighting the massive Ork horde; as it should be. Thankfully my
standing wasn't too awful, and I was only down 1 table for the last
game, which would be against Brian Stack's Space Wolves.